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Top 5 Reasons Why Apps Are Rejected During Facebook’s Login Review

Facebook introduced login review at its F8 global developer conference in San Francisco in April, in an effort to cut back on the number of permissions requested by applications, and in an update on its developer blog, software engineer Andreea Manole said more than 25,000 apps have been reviewed during the past six months, with the process wrapping up in less than one day in most cases.

Facebook introduced login review at its F8 global developer conference in San Francisco in April, in an effort to cut back on the number of permissions requested by applications, and in an update on its developer blog, software engineer Andreea Manole said more than 25,000 apps have been reviewed during the past six months, with the process wrapping up in less than one day in most cases.

People tell us that some apps ask for too many permissions. To address this, we’re extending our existing App Center and Open Graph review process to login. During login review, we’ll look at and approve any permissions that an app requests beyond public profile, email and friend list. Our goal is to help apps follow best practices while still keeping the review process fast and lightweight.

Manole offered an update in Tuesday’s blog post:

We’ve found that apps are requesting fewer permissions. Since launching login review, the average number of permissions that apps request has dropped from five to two. We’ve also found that in many cases, when an app requests fewer permissions, people are more likely to log in to that app. Our goal is to help developers understand the optimal permissions requests for each app, so people are more likely to trust the app and log in.

The top five reasons why apps are rejected, as pictured above, are:

Login broken or misbranded, 26 percent

Unable to reproduce permissions, 23 percent

Requesting unnecessary permissions, 21 percent

Broken app, 12 percent

Prefilling sharing messages, 7 percent

Manole also outlined improvements that have been made to login review:

Added the ability for Facebook reviewers to upload screenshots and provide error logs to developers so they can better understand what we’re seeing.

Added a “give feedback” button to the review interface to give developers an opportunity to directly share their thoughts on how we’re doing.

Changed App Center policies regarding image asset requirements, which have increased App Center approval by about 20 percent in a matter of weeks.

Improved several interfaces, including the permissions selector and status and review page, to make them clearer and easier to use.

Finally, Manole shared some best practices to help ensure speedy approval for developers’ apps:

Provide detailed step-by-step instructions on how the reviewer can reproduce the requested permissions in your app. Check out our review guidelines for more details on what to submit, and how.

Look at our permission selector dialog, which should prompt you for the proper permission to request, along with some valid and invalid use cases for each.

Ensure that your app runs end-to-end and does not crash or break; make sure your files are downloadable and working properly if you provide a simulator build.

Encourage your users to compose their own content in captions, comments, messages and other sharing fields; do not prefill the field for them, even if the person can edit or remove the content before sharing.

Remember, in addition to passing permissions review, developers are also responsible for ensuring their apps comply with our platform policy.

Developers: What have your experiences been like with Facebook’s login review?